By Tracy Harmon
The Pueblo Chieftain
FLORENCE, Colo. — Corrections officers working at three of the four Federal Bureau of Prisons lockups here may soon be able to use pepper spray for defense in volatile situations if a new bill is signed into law by President Barack Obama.
“Pepper spray is critical to the safety of correctional officers and also for inmates,” said Liane “Buffie” McFadyen, a Pueblo County commissioner who also serves as director for Corrections USA, which supports the bill. “The reason it is so important to the feds is that literally most state and local government detention systems allow pepper spray and the federal government hasn’t at all except in a pilot program,” McFadyen said.
The bill, dubbed the “Eric Williams Correctional Officer Protection Act” for an officer who was killed in the line of duty in 2013, passed the House and Senate on Feb. 24 with bipartisan support and is headed to Obama’s desk.
“It is a means of nonlethal defense in dangerous situations and is a tool that may have prevented officer Williams’ death,” McFadyen said.
Williams, a senior officer, died Feb. 25, 2013, while working in a housing unit at the U.S. Penitentiary at Canaan, Pa., where an inmate stabbed him with a sharpened weapon and struck him repeatedly.
“He was brutally killed at a medium-security prison and that is what prompted this,” said Derrick Padilla, a Florence federal correctional officer who is the legislative coordinator for the American Federation of Government Employees union.
“We do wear stab vests and having the pepper spray would add that extra layer of protection that will buy us a little bit of time for other officers to respond,” Padilla said.
Officers often are “working alone in a unit with 100-plus inmates and only have a radio and set of keys,” Padilla said. “This is a big victory.”
McFadyen said the American Federation of Government Employees union, which represents Federal Bureau of Prisons workers, pushed for the legislation. Corrections USA, which is a nonprofit organization that educates the public about corrections work, “has advocated for it on the hill for the last three years,” McFadyen said.
McFadyen wrote a letter to Obama last week “respectfully” requesting the president sign the bill into law.
“The officers are very appreciative of this legislation. What most people don’t realize is correctional officers don’t have regular use of firearms and they are working the toughest beat in law enforcement,” McFadyen explained.
“Officers have no type of self-defense equipment whether it is pepper spray or a (night) stick so it is a good victory for us that the legislators are hearing us and recognize the threat,” Padilla said.
The bill calls for officer training in the use of pepper spray followed by an annual refresher course. The spray would be available for use in medium- or higher-level prisons so officers could use it at the mediumsecurity Federal Correctional Institution, the high-security U.S. Penitentiary and the Supermax U.S. Penitentiary in Florence.
Copyright 2016 The Pueblo Chieftain